3565 - Trumpflation Squeezes Parents; Populist Dem Runs in Maine w/ Elizabeth Pancotti & Graham Platner

Summary

The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3565 – “Trumpflation Squeezes Parents; Populist Dem Runs in Maine”

Date: August 21, 2025
Host: Emma Vigeland (in for Sam Seder)
Guests: Elizabeth Pancotti (Groundwork Collaborative), Graham Platner (Democratic Senate Candidate, Maine)
Main Topics: The effects of Trump’s tariffs on the cost of living and school supplies, immigration scapegoating, and a populist campaign for U.S. Senate in Maine.

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Overview

This episode tackles the economic pressures parents face during back-to-school season—dubbed “Trumpflation”—as tariffs sharply raise the price of school essentials. The show features Elizabeth Pancotti, who presents new data on these price hikes and explains the structural failings behind America’s cost of living crisis. Later, Emma interviews Graham Platner, a populist veteran and community organizer running for U.S. Senate in Maine, about how to restore working class power and address the failures of both parties. The episode’s tone is irreverent, analytic, and sharply critical of current right-wing narratives.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Trump Administration Immigration Policy & Scapegoating

[00:07 – 17:55]

• Republican Narrative on Immigration:
  The show discusses a Laura Ingraham segment with Vice President J.D. Vance, highlighting the administration’s focus on blaming immigrants for societal problems, especially crime and housing costs.

  • Notable Quote:
    "Sanctuary cities are killing people because you allow these violent criminals to set up shop in your cities...it’s the entire point and purpose of the Democratic Party. If you go back to the election of 2024, what was the big issue? It was illegal immigration." – Vice President J.D. Vance (09:19)

• Emma’s Rebuttal & Facts about Immigration:
  Emma fact-checks claims, citing studies showing immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

  • Notable Quote:
    "Immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than US born people...There is no data that backs up their racist claims." – Emma Vigeland (07:03)
  • Crime rates have been declining post-pandemic; no data links immigration to higher crime.

• Cynicism of Policy Proposals:
  The panel points out how the right uses immigrants as scapegoats while lacking real solutions for cost of living, housing, or declining wages.

  • Notable Quote:
    "They have no answer for the cost of living crisis except to demonize other people." – Emma Vigeland (10:57)
  • Discussion of housing affordability: Over half of all renters spend 30%+ of income on rent/utilities (Harvard study).

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2. “Trumpflation”: Tariffs and Household Costs

[23:08 – 44:59]

Guest: Elizabeth Pancotti (Groundwork Collaborative)

• Groundwork/Century Foundation Analysis:
  Back-to-school supplies have seen an average price spike of 7.3% due to tariffs, more than double “headline” inflation.

  • Notable Quote:
    "School supplies are not really an optional expense for families...school supply list...is up 7.3%. But if you look at individual items, index cards are up by 40%." – Elizabeth Pancotti (23:58)

• Broader Cost Increases:

  • Not just school supplies: electronics, building materials, staple groceries, and clothes are all up.
  • Specific examples: Walmart and Target routinely forced to push through price hikes due to relentless tariffs. Certain staple items like crayons remain steady, but everything else is elevated.

• Supply Chains & Domestic Production Limits:

  • Even “Made in USA” goods (like certain pencils) depend on imported materials hit by tariffs.
    • "Number two pencils are made here, but the lumber that we largely import...is subject to tariffs." – Elizabeth Pancotti (27:24)
  • Replicating or onshoring production is a vast challenge—building one factory domestically depends on tariffs affecting steel, aluminum, machinery, and more.

• Tariff Policy & Industrial Strategy:

  • Biden used targeted, strategic tariffs to support domestic industry; Trump imposes broad, blunt tariffs, disrupting supply chains and stoking inflation without fostering real manufacturing growth.
    • “Nothing about this President’s approach to a domestic manufacturing renaissance is actually going to spur one. He is bullying companies and trying to control them.” – Elizabeth Pancotti (33:30)

• Holiday Season Outlook:

  • The price and availability of holiday essentials (costumes, toys, candy) are in jeopardy due to ongoing trade policy chaos.
    • “When Donald Trump told little girls...that you get one doll instead of five dolls, he meant it—because there will not be five dolls on the shelves this Christmas.” – Elizabeth Pancotti (43:33)

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3. Interview: Graham Platner’s Populist Senate Run in Maine

[46:23 – 69:24]

• Who is Graham Platner?

  • A veteran (4 tours, Iraq/Afghanistan), oyster farmer, and community organizer with a history as a Majority Report listener.
  • Critically opposed to establishment politics—“I reject the term liberal” (Politico profile).
  • Seeks to reclaim working-class, movement-driven politics in Maine.

• On War & Foreign Policy:

  • "We never seemed to be living up to the things we were claiming to do…the wars were really about transferring taxpayer wealth to defense contractors." – Graham Platner (48:07)
  • Calls out continued American support for Israel’s actions in Gaza, framing them as genocidal and unrelated to U.S. interests.

• Democratic Party Failures in Maine:

  • Argues that past Senate races failed due to D.C. imposition of weak, uncompetitive candidates disconnected from local realities, referencing Sarah Gideon's 2020 defeat.

• Political Approach & Movement-Building Ideology:

  • Inspired by labor history, civil rights struggles, and organizers like Jane McAlevey.
    • Notable Quote:
      "American history is not a history of working people asking permission…Every good thing that we have gotten…does not come from writing a strongly worded letter…We need to build power." – Graham Platner (57:41)
  • Advocates for field operations, community organization, and building lasting political infrastructure.

• Key Platform Areas:

  • Healthcare: “Automatic yes vote for Medicare for All.” (61:34)
  • Housing: Supports public/social housing; wants structural reforms to keep corporate landlords from gaming solutions.
    • “We need to look at all these things very structurally...there are pitfalls in allowing corporate landlord companies to still exist.” (61:36)
  • Costs & Climate:
    • Recognizes rural health and housing crises.
    • As an oyster farmer, brings environmental focus, but ensures costs to fix climate change are not shouldered by workers but by the corporations and industries responsible.
      • “We need to look into these solutions in ways that are going to make…corporations that made the problems…foot the bill.” (64:04)
  • Refuses corporate donations; is running a small-dollar, grassroots campaign.

• Populist, Working-Class Frame:

  • “The only way we are going to survive the rise of fascism in America is to build robust working-class politics again.” (53:07)
  • Cites Bernie Sanders as a model for movement-building, not merely policy inspiration.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Emma on Immigration Scapegoating:
  "There is no data that backs up their racist claims. Even as Laura Ingraham comes up with an anecdote that she says is data." (07:03)

• Elizabeth Pancotti on Tariffs:
  "We were building things in America…and so quickly, with like strokes of a pen, Trump has completely reversed that." (36:02)

• Graham Platner on American Wars:
  “None of this stuff benefits working class Americans. Nothing in Sullivan, Maine, improved because of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. Nothing in Sullivan, Maine, is going to improve because of our funding of a genocide.” (49:27)

• Platner on Movement Politics:
  "Power exists and can be taken and utilized by those who are willing to build the mechanisms necessary to do it…we need to build a much deeper structure of power through our political apparatus." (58:37)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:07]: Show introduction and main headlines
• [03:51] – [17:55]: Immigration, J.D. Vance on Laura Ingraham, debunking immigrant scapegoating
• [23:08] – [44:59]: Interview with Elizabeth Pancotti on Trump tariffs and “Trumpflation”
• [46:23] – [69:24]: Extended interview with Graham Platner on his Senate run, political philosophy, and agenda
• Post [69:24]: Hosts discuss the Platner interview, field audience responses, and chat about podcast developments

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Final Thoughts

This episode offers a comprehensive critique of both economic and political dynamics under the Trump administration, focusing especially on how policy choices (like sweeping tariffs) directly injure working- and middle-class Americans. Scapegoating immigrants is exposed as a cynical distraction from elite-driven cost increases and lack of investment. The Platner interview provides a hopeful vision for political renewal via grassroots, working-class organizing, pushing beyond milquetoast liberalism.

Useful for listeners seeking:

• Grounded explanations of how tariffs actually work;
• Refutations of right-wing talking points about immigration and cost of living;
• Insights into the future of progressive populist organizing.

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Transcript

[Graham Platner]

The Majority Report with Sam Seder.

[Emma Vigeland]

It is Thursday, August 21, 2025. My name is Emma Vigeland in for Sam Cedar and this is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, Elizabeth Pancati of the Groundwork Collaborative will be with us to talk about Trump's tariffs, raising prices on back to school essentials. And later in the show, Graham Platner, Democratic candidate for U.S. senate in Maine, will be with us to talk about his race. Also on the program, Pam Bondi ramps up her throat. Threats against blue states and cities over them legally not complying with the ICE Gestapo. Deportations hit a new high, 180,000 so far. Uganda is the latest country to cut a deal with Trump to take abducted immigrants. Texas Republicans officially pass their deeply gerrymandered map. JD Vance is booed in DC's Union Station as Stephen Miller promises that more federal dollars will be wasted on this display. They are spending $1 million a day on the D.C. occupation. Vance, fresh off his eighth vacation in seven months, will travel to Georgia today to sell the administration's deeply unpopular big ugly ass bill. The DOJ is demanding that hospitals hand over sensitive information on trans kids receiving care, including addresses and private doctor's notes. A Reuters poll finds that a majority of Americans, 57%, think democracy is in peril as Newsom's redistricting plan gets Obama's approval. After accomplishing nothing. Trump is reportedly taking a step back from Ukraine, Russia, peace talks, doing nothing. Check the im. By the way, the Israeli government officially approves its most extreme west bank settlement project that would divide up the land in a way that kills the prospect of a Palestinian state. And lastly, a judge rejects the Trump administration's efforts to unseal the Epstein grand jury testimony and calls on them to just release the files. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome to the show, everybody. It's an M. Majority Report Thursday. Hello? Hello? I just need the. I can't see the screen on your computer. That's what I'm alluding to. The internal camera. Yeah, the live feed. I'm not seeing it. Oddly, that could be a problem on my end then. But we're fixing that. Don't worry. Yeah, I don't see it here. Do you see? Well, we don't need to do this right now. Live. It's just. Oh, it's the small one. Okay. But it is my fault.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

Sorry.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sorry, guys. All right. Well, a bit of an inauspicious start, but we're rolling with it. I'm excited for the show today, though. Graham Plotner seems like the real deal. And I heard through the grapevine that he is a Majority Report fan. So that means his politics have got to be good. Let's start here then. So last night, Laura Ingraham had J.D. vance on her show for an interview. And this answer here from him to one of her questions about trying to force the states and cities to comply with the federal government. I think kind of encapsulates really the, the overarching theme of this administration or one of the, the many ones for people that don't know the federal government does have control over, you know, immigration law that is in their purview. But there's this thing called the 10th amendment which says that states and local governments do not have to be forced, they cannot be compelled to enforce laws by the federal government. They can't actively thwart them, which is I think what they're trying to argue in the administration. But this has been a precedent that has been reified and reasserted multiple times, including by one Antonin Scalia in The case in 1997, Prince v. United States. The quote, which I read this morning in a conservative publication, said the federal government may neither issue directives requiring the states to address particular problems nor command the state's officers or those of their political subdivisions to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program. So that is the case with immigration law. Cities don't have to comply with ice, and that is in the Constitution. And yet that is what this administration is obsessed with. So here is Laura Ingraham asking the vice President about that dynamic, given the.

[Laura Ingraham (clip)]

Fact that they're endangering the lives and killing American citizens, as we saw with that horrific crash in Florida.

[Vice President (clip)]

Literally, literally killing Americans.

[Laura Ingraham (clip)]

Literally killing Americans. I mean, these are not made up statistics.

[Emma Vigeland]

Can you pause it? These are not made up statistics. They are referring to a truck driver who was an immigrant from India who I guess was in Florida and he had a driver's license, God forbid, and he made an illegal U turn and it killed three people. This. What do you mean these are not made up statistics? You're not citing a statistic anecdote. You're citing an anecdote about a car accident.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

Yeah, like, and you know, people always point out ad nauseam that immigrant communities are typically like, commit less crimes and violations than do citizens of this country. But because they're immigrants, people like this fascists demonize them.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I mean, I was going to get to that later, but now that you brought it up, we can just read this briefly from npr. Last year, some of the most extensive research on this comes from Stanford University. Economists Ran Abramitzi found that since the 1960s, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than US born people. There is also state level research that shows similar results. Researchers at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Libertarian think tank looked into Texas in 2019. They found that undocumented immigrants were 37.1% less likely to be convicted of a crime beyond incarceration rates. Research also shows that there is no correlation between undocumented people and a rise in crime. Recent investigations by the New York Times and the Marshall Project found that between 2007 and 2016, there was no link between undocumented immigrants and a rise in violent or property crime in those communities. It's also important to note that since the Spike in the two pandemic years, and also it crossed over into 2023, but crime in general in the country has been precipitously declining. So there is no data that backs up their racist claims. Even as Laura Ingraham comes up with an anecdote that she says is data.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

Right. And I mean, to be fair to libertarians like Chase Oliver, the candidate that was on their ticket had probably the best immigration platform of anybody on a ticket. But, you know, somebody like Dave Smith had to package up libertarianism for Donald Trump to win. But yeah, do we want to go back to Jay?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, we'll start the question from the beginning.

[Vice President (clip)]

To get better policies that actually serve the American people, given the fact.

[Laura Ingraham (clip)]

That they're endangering the lives and killing American citizens, as we saw with that horrific crash in Florida.

[Vice President (clip)]

Literally, literally killing American citizens.

[Laura Ingraham (clip)]

Literally killing Americans. I mean, these are not made up statistics, not just gaps.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

How about say that about the gun industry. Sorry.

[Laura Ingraham (clip)]

I mean, federal highway funds, that's leverage that the federal government has over the states that refuse to do the basics. Would you consider advising that DOT and the administration pull back on federal highway funds for these states?

[Vice President (clip)]

So I don't want to get ahead of any administration announcements, but we are looking at a whole host of points of leverage we can exercise over California and other states to make sure they comply with the law. Sanctuary cities are killing people because you allow these violent criminals to set up shop in your cities. Obviously you saw this case with the person who murdered people on the road. Three people on the road, because he couldn't even read the road signs. We have A lot of points of leverage here, but fundamentally, I think the American people have to stand with us here because when we go and tell the governor of California or the governor of New York that you have to stop putting the interest of illegal aliens over American citizens, we need the American people to stand with us. And I think that they will, I think that they are. But we're definitely not going to let this slide. Laura, you can't do it. You've got to stop putting the interests of foreigners who don't have the right to be here over the interests of American citizens. That is the. That is the entire point and purpose of the Democratic Party. If you go back to the election of 2024, what was the big issue? The big issue was illegal immigration. They were actually defending the rights of illegal immigrants to come into our country to vote in our elections, to collect Social Security and Medicaid. That ought, by right, go to American citizens. To say nothing of housing. This is actually the biggest driver of housing costs. Costs in some of these big blue cities is that they flooded the zone with illegal immigrants. As we kicked illegal aliens out of our country, you actually see housing costs start to level off. So fundamentally, the difference between Republicans and Democrats is we care about American citizens. They actually don't like American citizens and want to replace them with low wage foreigners. It's a very stark difference. And I think the American people are going to continue to reward us because of it.

[Emma Vigeland]

All right, pause it. All right. Or end it there. I just wanted to get to that housing piece because of how disgustingly cynical it is when I say that that clip is indicative of what this administration is about. That's what I mean. When he finally gets around to the cost of living, which Trump is making much worse right now. As we're about to discuss with Liz Pancati about how school supplies are already drastically increasing in price as Trump's tariffs begin to make their effects felt. They have no answer for the cost of living crisis except to demonize other people. They don't want to tax corporations, people who build housing to redistribute wealth to folks. They don't want to crack down on corporate landlords who are price fixing. They have nothing to address the cost of living crisis except to exacerbate it with the tariffs. But when they're addressed with, when they have to address something very real, oh, it's the immigrants. We're kicking them out to make your life better. That's not happening right now. It's actually getting a lot worse. And the housing Crisis is no joke. There was a Harvard study in 2023 that found that over 22 million renters now spend over 30% of their income on rent and utilities. That's really the standard of like what's supposed to be affordable is if you spend 30%, that's half of all renters who are spending more than is supposed to be allowable for your budget roughly. And that's kind of considered the affordability threshold. Half of all renters right now are exceeding their means just on housing and utilities. And there was data where you can just look at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that prices for folks primary residences they've tracked this have increased since 2015 over a 10 year period by over 50% outpacing inflation which was around 31%. So it's out of control. And his answer is, well we'll kick out all the immigrants. I mean we're going to see how this goes. Are rental prices going to start to go down across the country because of this? We know the answer. And when he's threatening also at the beginning of the clip withholding federal highway funds from California if they assert their constitutional right to not comply with the federal government under the 10th amendment. I mean pointing out their hypocrisy is yields nothing at this point. But God, the states rights stuff, it's just so obvious how cynical and how quickly they abandoned that.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

Yeah, I mean those, those precedents need to be used next time the Democrats have power. But like first of all the setup shop for foreigners to do criminal murders is such a lie. Sanctuary laws are passed often with the support of police departments because it allows communities to say report violent folks and other problems to authorities without worrying about ICE coming and kicking them down the door and sending them to some country. And it's already the case that if there's someone who's a violent criminal that local authorities aren't going to let them set up shop. No, they go in and arrest them. That's what they've been doing this entire time. But the housing crisis caused by some sort of like Biden era immigration influx. No, we haven't been building houses since 2008. This is very clear pattern that post the 2008 financial crisis America has stopped building houses at the rate that it had for decades and decades and decades since then. And now it. And you know what, who builds those houses is oftentimes immigrants and who should just be. If you build houses in this country for American developers that should, you should just give get citizenship and full labor protections that's the way to deal with that. But it's not to kick people out who are actually going to be doing all the hard work. And like, J.D. vance has been a go for venture capitalists for his entire adult life.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. And he also was making claims that they're stealing our social services. This is another insanely false claim that they rely on. It's incredible how many lies are just in that one clip. Like, I honestly, they're gonna let him vote.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

It's like, no, we should let them seek asylum. Which, by the way, Biden didn't even do. He revoked Title 42.

[Emma Vigeland]

If you're an immigrant and you are, say on a green card or you're working and you have a W2, you are paying into our Social Security and Medicare system. And there's no guarantee if you don't get citizenship that you're going to get any of it. They are subsidizing our social services, not stealing from it. They are also taking jobs, J.D. vance, that are often sub. Minimum wage exploitative, that Americans have more protections because of citizenship, that they aren't often compelled to do in the same way that like migrant children are when we get stories about them dying in meatpacking processing plants and that kind of thing. So it's just Donald Trump is literally.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

A type of capitalist who uses undocumented immigrant labor to make bigger profits. He did it with Trump Tower. He used undocumented Polish workers who threatened to kill the guy who Trump had hired them because he started stiffing them on payments. Like that is literally the guy. He's the guy. We don't even have to be theoretical like, oh, capitalists like ICE because it does their work for him. Because what happened when they threatened Trump's foreman is Trump threatened. It wasn't ICE at that time. It was whatever the deportee other border services was. But it was, yeah, get them in here, get them out, because they're not being compliant laborers. Trump is the guy.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. And I headlined this, but this was the vacation wars are kind of a silly partisan fight that happens every administration. But it is a little jarring that JD Vance has taken more vacations than there have been months that he's been in power.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

Where's he going?

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, it's like Iceland all across the world. I mean, what'd you say?

[Matt Binder]

Didn't he go to the Vatican?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Oh, right. And then he killed the Pope. Allegedly.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

He's on missions.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Yeah. So I just like, he was notoriously lazy as a senator and in his Senate run He's just the kind of guy that wants to sit on his ass with a big pile of money. Hollywood JD that is what gives me a little bit hope of hope if he's the standard bearer for MAGA going forward. Like I don't know if he has the juice and I don't think he has the work ethic.

[Matt Binder]

They should all go on vacation for the next three years.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, I'm I hope those golf numbers for Donald Trump are just like through the roof here. In a moment we're going to be talking to Liz Pancati. But first, a word from some of our favorite sponsors, including HelloFresh. HelloFresh sends Chef Crafted recipes and fresh ingredients right to your home. But this summer they made their biggest menu upgrade yet. This isn't the HelloFresh you remember. It's bigger, healthier and tastier than ever. And we Want to thank HelloFresh for supporting the Majority Report. Get 10 free meals plus a free item for [e-mail] Majority10FM so that's Majority10FM. HelloFresh has doubled its menu so now you have all of these new options. You can choose from over 100 options each week, including new seasonal dishes and recipes from around the world. Dig into bigger portions that will keep everybody satisfied. Feel great with an even healthier menu filled with high protein and veggie packed recipes. HelloFresh now helps you eat greener with new veggie packed recipes that have two or more veggies. You get steak seafood recipes delivered every week with no extra cost. There's three times more seafood on the menu now. Again, no extra cost. Discover new seasonal produce each week from snap peas to stone fruit to corn on the COB and more. HelloFresh especially. I've been really busy this year. It's just a game changer because it makes it so easy for you to not order in. You can make it at home, but you don't have to work super hard when you're cooking yourself. They have it all laid out for you. So if you have a busy schedule, HelloFresh, I couldn't recommend it more highly. They have a great pasta dish that's usually my go to. The best way to cook just got better. Go to hellofresh.com Majority10FM now to get 10 free meals and a free item for life. One per box with active subscription free meals applied as discount on the first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. That's hellofresh.com Majority10FM to get 10 free meals and a free item for life. We will put a link down below wherever you're listening to or watching this. And lastly, another one of our favorites, Magic Spoon. Just yesterday I had one of their high protein zero sugar treats. But of course they also have high protein zero sugar cereal reinvented from your childhood nostalgia. If you like a little bit of sweetness, like some sweet sugary cereal, but you're getting a little bit too old for that to just kind of burn away and it makes you feel like crap after all of that sugar. Well, Magic Spoon is where you should turn. Every serving of Magic Spoon high protein cereal has 13 grams of protein, 0 grams of sugar and 4 grams of net carbs. And they come in nostalgic flavors like fruity cocoa and frosted. And Magic Spoon's high protein treats are crispy, crunchy, airy and an easy way to get 12 grams of protein on the go. They come in mouth watering flavors like Marshmallow, which is my favorite, chocolate, peanut butter and dark chocolate. Both are great on the go pre or post workout and as a midnight snack. Get $5 off your next order at magicspoon.com majorityreport one word or look for Magic Spoon on Amazon or in your nearest grocery store. That's magicspoon.com MajorityReport $5 off magicspoon.com Majority Report for $5 off Again, link below in the description wherever you're listening to or watching this. All right, quick break and when we come back, we'll be joined by Liz Panati.

[Sam Seder]

Sam it.

[Emma Vigeland]

We are back and we are joined now once again by friend of the show, Elizabeth Pancati, managing director of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative and former economic advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders. Liz, thanks so much for coming on the show.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

Thanks so much for having me.

[Emma Vigeland]

Of course. So you have the Groundwork Collaborative in collaboration with the Century foundation, put out this new analysis of how Trump's tariffs have raised the price of school supplies an average of 7.3% more this back to school season. That's a huge increase when you average it out. I mean, can you speak a little bit about how you all decided to kind of look into this and what were the major findings that stuck out to you?

[Elizabeth Pancati]

Yeah, so the increase is more than double headline kind of overall inflation. It is almost on par with kind of the worst of headline inflation in that, you know, 20, 223 period where we were hitting 9%. This is a big hike in costs on families. It's obviously not just school supplies. It's, you know, consumer electronics and building materials and their utility bills and you know, their Nintendo Switches and PS5. Right. It's, it's everything. But school supplies are not really an optional expense for families. Especially at this time of year. It's pretty tough to send your kid to school without a backpack and a couple number two pencils along with the rest of the school supply lists. I don't have kids personally, but we asked a couple of our colleagues for their kids school supply list and they're, they're lengthy and it's not, you know, frivolous items. I always had, you know, the hello Kitty erasers or whatever. But the basics of your kid needs to, you know, be able to highlight the book they're reading or write in their notebook and have graph paper for math class. Right. These are just, just kind of the basic expenses and they're really not optional for families. And so we, you know, had read a lot about prices increasing across the board. You know, Walmart a couple of months ago announced that they were really struggling to put off price hikes as a result of their tariffs. In fact, their earnings calls. This, this morning we were listening to them and they said that every time they replenish inventory on a weekly basis, they are getting hit with more tariffs and having to hike more prices on the shelves. And so we've actually been taking a look at this a couple of times this year. We looked at, you know, fourth of July, their firework prices were way up this year we looked at Memorial Day. Charcoal grills are almost exclusively manufactured in China. And so fireworks are exclusively manufactured in China. There's no fireworks production facility in the United States. So we've done this kind of seasonally. And so this is back to school season. What we find is that school supply, like an average school supply list, you know, a couple packs of pencils, markers, crayons, notebooks, whatever is up 7.3%. But if you look at individual items, index cards for example, are up by 40%. So within the individual items, crayons are actually the same price. And it's really funny, I was listening to Target's earnings call yesterday and they said that they have kept the 50 cent box of crayons from last back to school season. Like they were bragging about that. So crayons are actually not up by very much, but everything else is. So I think kids might be writing with crayons instead of pencils this year, but it's really tough for families. And in addition to school supplies, we find that school lunchbox staples are up. And so over the course of the school year families, like if you just take the prices right now, I mean, they are only going to get worse. Families will pay $160 more to pack their kids lunches this year at the same time that Trump is kicking millions of families off of their SNAP food stamp benefits.

[Emma Vigeland]

Can you maybe help us trace some of the supply chain areas that like lead us to this point? I mean, that we all know that tariffs are raising prices across the board, but why, you know, particularly index cards or why some of these other more dramatic increases?

[Elizabeth Pancati]

I actually haven't figured out why index cards are up. It's really bothering me because other paper products aren't up.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, other paper products aren't. All right, well, that's interesting. But they are up.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

But like index cards specifically are up really high. And so I am, we're looking into it because it's annoying me personally.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

I think it might have to do with like the, like the paper cutter is my guess because steel and aluminum tariffs are so high. And also like when you manufacture especially paper cut paper that is not like a standard letter size piece of paper. When you manufacture paper, you make big sheets of it and so then you have to cut it into smaller pieces and there are more standard sizes for that. Index cards can be less standard, like a sheet of notebook paper, a sheet of copy printer paper. There's obviously way more of that in the world than an index card. And so my, my guess is the cutter. I'm also, I recently got engaged and I'm looking at wedding invitation prices and they are insane. People keep. Thank you. But people keep telling me it's because of the cut. And I'm like, I just don't, I don't get the markup. But that's my suspicion. But we are looking into it on, on index cards specifically. But other things like binders, which are primarily made of plastic and metal, those are things we make some of here but are largely imported either because their pieces are manufactured or created elsewhere and then they're imported as materials and then they are assembled here or the entire product is manufactured and assembled elsewhere. Some things are still made here, tender, you know, Ticonderoga wood, number two pencils are made in the United States, but there are large tariffs on the lumber that makes those pencils. And so even though they are made here, the lumber that we largely import from places like Canada or further away, that is not and is subject to the tariffs. And so it's, it's been a mix of different things. But if you think about all of the materials that go into, you know, a backpack. We don't make backpacks here. We don't make. We don't particularly look at apparel in this just because the data we were using didn't have as good of data on it. But, you know, tariffs are hitting Nike, Adidas, the children's place, Carter's, oshkosh, Target. These places are all hiking children's shoes, children's clothing.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sorry, we put something on our soundboard. Go ahead.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

They were really angry about kids clothing prices, but we've noticed in the last few CPI prints that those have been up and we've been hearing, you know, manufacturers and producers say, so we did look at a couple of examples, but Nike and Adidas shoes are getting tariffed and we expect, you know, those to be passed through to consumers. And you can't really choose to get your kid a new pair of sneakers. That's not, not really a choice.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. And I mean, the, the nature of these supply chains, you hit on it a little bit. Like, even for products that are made in the US that we. Without the, say, like inflation Reduction act being followed through on or without building up our domestic capacity to make some of these things, we are, we have to rely on imported goods because we just don't have the mechanism to create them right now. And that takes such a long period of time. Can you explain a little bit more about how those supply chains work as it relates to even goods that like, are as simple as a number two pencil?

[Elizabeth Pancati]

Yeah, I mean, a number two pencil is a good example of, you know, the, the wood is imported. We have some domestic sources of hard and soft wood lumber, obviously, but it's not just wood. Like, if you think of it, I wish I had. But like, if you think of a number two pencil, there's the wood, there's the lead that goes inside of it, there's the little metal thing that keeps the eraser on, and then there's the rubber eraser. So the wood is, you know, processed, but it's mostly a raw material. The lead has to be processed into that piece and some, you know, from, from being extracted, like there's some kind of process there. The metal that holds the eraser on is usually aluminum, and so that requires processing. There are massive tariffs on aluminum right now. And the aluminum smelters in the U.S. as my colleague Alex actually worked on, and the NEC, we were, we were opening the first aluminum smelter in the US in decades, and they are delaying the project as a result of Trump's tariffs. And rollbacks of various other policies. And then the eraser is rubber, which has to be manufactured through a variety of chemical processes and polymers and petroleum and whatnot. So it's a lot that goes into it. If you want an eraser, I guess you could simply pick up something else, but a crayon, you know, the wax has to be dyed and melted and formed, and a piece of paper has to go around it. Backpacks are really interesting because they typically involve fabric, which we don't. There used to be, you know, a lot of fabric and textile mills in places like North Carolina and Massachusetts. They were largely shipped overseas over the last 60 years. But zippers, there are, like, very few zipper manufacturers in the United States. So even if you got domestically made fabric, there's usually, like, plastic coatings on some backpacks, and then there are little components like zippers. And so it just really adds up. The other thing, like say you're L L Bean, for example, and you really want to manufacture backpacks in the United States. They do make some products in the US but say you're, you know, you are taking the president seriously. He says he wants a manufacturing renaissance. You say, okay, great, let's make backpacks up in Maine right now to build a facility to make backpacks. You will face tariffs on industrial equipment, on the lumber and sheetrock and concrete to make the facility, on the steel and aluminum that goes into all the industrial equipment, on the fabric that you import, because we don't make a ton of fabric here on the plastic coating that you import, on the zippers that you import. And so if you're L.L. bean, you have to make 17 other factories to have your factory be U.S. made. And that's all while one, all of those imports are tariffed. But also every other company is trying to diversify their supply chains. I mean, every earnings. I've listened to, like, 15 earnings calls this week because I'm a nerd. But every company is saying, we're trying to diversify our supply chains, especially out of China or places where the tariffs are especially high. And they are all doing it at once. And so when everybody is on the phone with a limited number of factories or raw material suppliers or processors around the world, it's just really difficult. I think that, you know, nothing about this president's approach to a domestic manufacturing renaissance is actually going to spur one. He is bullying companies and trying to control them. I mean, intel, for example, had a large incentive from the CHIPS Act. I actually worked on an amendment when I worked for Senator Sanders to Add that, you know, if the US is going to give these chip companies $50 billion, the American taxpayers should kind of share in the upside of the profits that they make from those grants. I think that's still a good enacted ultimately. But Trump has instead gone to intel, said he wants this golden share, and to be able to bully them into doing everything. Ultimately, you know, the issue is that the shareholders of intel can decide if they're going to produce chips, which, like investors probably shouldn't control a critical supply chain, but neither should this president. I mean, he is just completely bullying companies. I'm not, you know, I'm not here to defend, like, unfettered capitalism, but he is swinging the pendulum in the complete opposite way to extract things from these companies so that they come into the Oval Office and hand him gold bars and, you know, hand him jets and all of this stuff. And that's not how we make more chips. That's just. Or make backpacks in America or whatever it is. It's just how the President gets, you know, bribes from his adversaries.

[Emma Vigeland]

What are you seeing in terms of the, the, the infrastructure rollbacks that the administration is engaging in, trying to just kill anything that Biden pass. Like, I mean, it's so nonsensical because it seems to me like the very folks that donated to Donald Trump or whatever, the Silicon Valley guys, would greatly benefit from a blank check. Not a blank check, billions of dollars, but, like, with no requirement to give those, some of those returns back to the American public. Because obviously, as you said, that wasn't included in the final legislation. It would make sense to me that they would want that, whether it's Peter Thiel or. I mean. Right. So I. That was a benefit to them. Like, what is the status of some of those rollbacks? Or is it. Does Trump just want to control. If one of his friends gets the kickback, is that basically the, the end of it?

[Elizabeth Pancati]

I think it all has to benefit him. I mean, he's just like, like an egotistical guy. I think that he's very flattered when a CEO comes into the Oval Office and says, oh, you know, Mr. President, please come to our ribbon cutting. We're investing trillions of dollars. In fact, I think these CEOs have realized that if they just simply go in and charm him with a big number, he'll kind of either back off of them or say something nice about them. And so a lot of these commitments, so to speak, that CEOs or other countries are making are completely false. They are just trying to woo the, I guess more power to them. But the heartbreaking thing is that at the end of the day, that means that jobs are not going to be delivered in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania where they've been hollowed out for decades. I mean, my favorite graph this is, I'm again a nerd, but there's an incredible graph of if you look at during the Biden administration, if you look at spending, corporate spending on manufacturing construction, so how much in our economy was being spent on building new manufacturing facilities. The line is like do to do it dips in some places. And then it literally does this during the Biden administration. I mean, it's actually an incredible graph of like how effective this industrial policy scheme was between combination of the American rescue plan, the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Chips and Science act and the inflation reduction Act. So all of those things plus a combination of tariff policies and other policies the administration was doing like it worked. We were building things in America and we were going to make things in America. And so quickly, with like strokes of a couple of, a couple of strokes of a pen, Trump has completely reversed that between the tariff driving tariffs, driving up building costs for these facilities. I mean, I think that's the other thing of if taxpayer dollars are funding these facilities, wouldn't you want them to be built in the most efficient way? Instead we're paying a bunch of tariffs back to the federal government. Right. Like it doesn't totally make sense.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right. And also this is an example of how you do an on shoring domestic manufacturing policy because Biden was somebody who used tariffs strategically as opposed to using some formula that was came up with like by Peter Navarro or whatever that is really just about what you say. The CEO is coming to the Oval Office. Like if you could just say talk a little bit more about how tariffs can be used strategically for things like domestic onshoring.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

You know, we had this during the Biden administration. They rolled out a suite of tariff policies that said, look, there's a couple different things. One, we want fair trade, not free trade. So where country other countries are using unfair tactics like forced labor or excessive, you know, emissions or unfair tax policies or unfair subsidies or whatever that are undercutting American jobs. And also just, just the general labor and human welfare that we would like to see around the world in manufacturing processes, we are going to tariff those things to discourage the purchase of them. And at the same time, it was really a twofold thing. It was strategic. It was not broad based. They were not on. It was not 15 to 50% tariffs on every country in the world or an island of penguins. It was strategic tariffs on particular product lines. And in part there were tariffs that were put on certain products that we were trying to create domestic supply of. Like, we were trying to stand those facilities up and say, look, you will have a customer base to these domestic manufacturers. You will have a customer base for these things. People will buy the American made version of these things and you can scale them so that they are price competitive with other fairly traded goods. Like, it's just, it's basically like an incubation period. Right. It just says like, while you're getting started, we're going to make it a little bit easier for you. Which makes sense, that is, you know.

[Emma Vigeland]

There are lots of giving American companies a leg up, basically, which is what Trump pretends he's doing.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

Yeah, it's not even a leg up. It's just a level playing field of like, all right, can you give us five years to build the fab and make the chip and like get it out? Right. It's just to scale it. It's, I don't know, I don't want to like shill for the pharmaceutical companies, but like, in part this is why there are, I think how far it's gone is unreasonable. But this is why we have patent protections. Right. It says, okay, you've, you've innovated, you've put the money into a new drug, we'll give you the patent for a reasonable period of time so you can recuperate that money and then it makes it worth it for you to do it. Obviously that gets out of hand and.

[Emma Vigeland]

They don't cut corners. It incentivizes them to basically create a better product and. Right, right.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

And they have a, they know that at the end of the day somebody's going to buy the solar panels or the chips or the steel or the windmill turbines or whatever they're making. And so I think the beauty of, you know, biodynamics is that we were taking strategic tariffs plus industrial policy. So it was incentives to build and incentives to buy on the consumer, both industrial consumers. And typical me and you, if we want to put a solar panel on our apartment or if Samsung wants to buy a million solar panels to put on top of a factory, there were incentives on both sides for utility scale projects and residential projects for clean energy. And this wasn't just clean energy. I mean, this was a lot of supply chains. Now it is so expensive to build and make things here as a result of the tariffs. And I Think the bigger story here is actually the consumers don't want to buy anything because they think the economy is about to be in the tank or it already is, and they're terrified. I mean, we have seen so much pullback in spending. People are not going on vacation. They are holding off on buying a new car. I mean, I was listening to earnings calls for an air conditioning company and they were saying that they are seeing so many more repairs like order for parts because people are duct taping their air conditioners back together rather than buy a new one because they're so scared to make a 5,000, $10,000 expense right now. They need that money in the bank in case something bad happens. I mean, people are terrified of losing their job jobs. They are terrified of having, you know, an emergency expense because they just see the writing on the walls of this.

[Emma Vigeland]

Economy and it's only going to get worse from here. Right? So, I mean, can you just. As we wrap up here, Liz, tell us a little bit about what's coming. We know that Christmas is. And the holiday season is going to be difficult given the fact that so many toys are manufactured in China overseas. What is coming down the road in the next few months as we wrap up the year?

[Elizabeth Pancati]

I think as we get, you know, Halloween costumes, more than 90% are manufactured in China. If you're Spirit Halloween, you open for one month out of the year, right. And. Or if you're Amazon and you order, you know, inventory of Halloween costumes, that stuff sells for one month out of the year. Nobody's buying a Dorothy and Toto costume in February. And so you don't import these things until three to five months before you. This is the spoiler alert of my Halloween costume. But you don't import those things in advance a little bit, you know, three to five months before they go on shelves or they're available online. You buy them, you put them in a warehouse, and then you sell them. And the issue of when, especially the China tariffs, but really all of the tariffs went into effect and they were on and off. And the chaos of it meant that many companies just stopped buying things. We saw port volumes decline by massive amounts. I mean, nobody, people were just sitting on their hand saying, we can, can. We can get away with the inventory we have on hand. And then we'll. And then hopefully the tariffs won't be in place when we need to do it. And so nobody's stocked up. I mean, Target and Walmart buy Christmas stock six to eight months in advance so that it's here when People want to buy it on Black Friday or the night before Christmas. Right. They haven't done that. There are toy companies that are saying we are not bringing new toys to the US because we cannot price them competitively and because we miss the window for importing them. And so when Donald Trump told little girls, girls in this country that you get one doll instead of five dolls, he meant it because there will not be five dolls for parents to buy on the shelves this Christmas. And if you're looking for the latest Ms. Rachel or Bluey toy, it's not going to be on your Target shelves this winter. And if you're looking for, you know, the latest Halloween costume at Spirit Halloween or the newest bag of chocolate candy or whatever it, I really think we're going to have shortage shortages. And what is on the shelves is going to be more expensive.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, as always, Liz Pan, what'd you say? Cheery note to end Cheery note. But, you know, seriously, you're brilliant. I always appreciate you coming on and breaking this stuff down. Thank you so much. And you know, from one nerd to another, never apologize for enjoying a graph or two.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

I'll put you next time for.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay, great. You can check out Elizabeth Pankati's grand great work over at the Groundwork Collaborative. Thanks so much for your time today. Really appreciate it.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

Thanks for having me.

[Emma Vigeland]

Thanks. All right, quick break, folks. And when we come back, we're going to be talking to Graham Platner, Senate candidate in Maine.

[Sam Seder]

Sam It.

[Emma Vigeland]

We are back and we are joined now by Graham Platner, Democratic candidate for U.S. senate in Maine, hoping to take on Susan Collins in the general election in 2026. Graham, thanks so much for coming on the show.

[Graham Platner]

Thank you very much for having me.

[Emma Vigeland]

You are not apparently just a listener to the majority report you previously called in, which is amazing.

[Graham Platner]

So this is, in fact, what's very funny is that it was a couple years ago now and I was on, I would call in some days when I was out on the oyster farm. And the one day that I actually made it through a thunderstorm hit in the exact same moment. And so I was trying to talk to Sam while the quality was just horrific. Yeah, it was. I was like, of course, this is the moment. This is the moment. I'm sure significantly better.

[Emma Vigeland]

So that's good, that's good, that's good. I mean, we have the power of video calls now and wifi. I really appreciate you coming on today. I'll start off with another kind of cheeky question here. Can you promise us that you will not be another John Fetterman.

[Graham Platner]

Yes.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay. Okay, great.

[Graham Platner]

I saw a tweet yesterday that said Graham Platner's God apologizing for John Fetterman, which I got a very hearty chuckle out of.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I mean, for starters, you are unambiguous in your condemnation of Israel's genocide in Gaza. You use that term. You are a veteran. You served four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Can you speak a little bit about your service, how it affected your perspective on the current genocide in Gaza? And, of course, you know, America's role in the Middle East.

[Graham Platner]

Yeah, I mean, you know, in many ways, it's. That makes a story of disillusionment. I certainly joined the Marine Corps even though I had a lot of reservations about the war in Iraq. I still felt that there was a. There was going to be a goodness and something we could do. And I. It was hard for me to believe that. After a while, it also really began to make me question kind of the structures of American foreign policy. I began to, like. We never seemed to be living up to the things we were claiming to do. The tactics and the strategies that I would see deployment after deployment, after deployment never really matched up with these kind of grandiose claims. And there was a point where I just began to wonder, like, well, if we're not doing what we say we're doing, what are we doing? And it became fairly clear that what we were doing was transferring an immense amount of taxpayer wealth into the pockets of a fair amount of very wealthy defense contractors, all on the backs of the young men and women we sent overseas to suffer and die, and on the backs of the untold amount of civilians in the countries that we conducted these operations.

[Emma Vigeland]

And go ahead if you want to expand on that. I mean, I think it's.

[Graham Platner]

I mean, that's pretty much the core of it. Like, at this point, I've just become deeply critical of the American foreign policy establishment. And the behavior that continues to happen reflects that same criticism. We have not begun to learn. We continue to do these utterly horrific. And in my way, my way of thinking completely, this does nothing for America. None of this stuff benefits working class Americans. Nothing in Sullivan, Maine, improved because of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. Nothing in Sullivan, Maine, is going to improve because of our funding of a genocide. It says nothing to do with these things. And that is not where we should be spending our money, both morally, but also just as a nation.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's a very simple answer, I think, for folks to get behind. And this is really broadly the consensus when you also cross partisan lines. I know Maine has a really independent streak. Of course, you have Senator Angus King, who is an independent but caucuses with the Democrats. And then you have, of course, Susan Collins, who is running again, obviously. But I just am flummoxed as to how she has hung on for this long. Like the. In 2020, she won reelection by 8 points, and Biden won that race. And what is your view on the failures of the Democratic Party in your state of Maine to come up with a candidate that can challenge somebody who should be quite vulnerable in many of these races?

[Graham Platner]

Well, look, I'll just be up front. I don't even think it's this Democratic Party in the state of Maine. Maine. I think it's the Democratic Party nationally. Like the, the 2020 race. Sarah Gideon, who had served many years in the main legislature, was, was. It was a good. Was a good. A good legislator and. But was anointed by the. By the party in D.C. and there really wasn't much of a. There wasn't much of a. Of a process of finding anyone else. They just decided that. That she was the best candidate. And. And then they ran a kind of standard campaign. They. They. Field operations were not a big part of it. It was the raise. I think they raised $60 million in that race, and far more than Susan Collins needed to spend. And they just blew it on mail. I mean, there was a joke back then. We're like, we don't have to, like, even get firewood this year. We're all just saving up the mailers. You're just gonna burn the wood stuff. So it's a. I mean, it was ridiculous. And both the fact that, like, I don't think she could appeal across this kind of more independent streak, I think she drove out the Democratic base, but that was it. And then it was a campaign that was. That was, for the record, my understanding, is not their fault at all. It was driven by the. By the national level, and it was just focused on kind of standard campaigning. And so I think Collins has held on one, because back then, there was still a little bit of that myth, even though we were. We were seeing the truth, that the myth still held on. The myth doesn't hold on now. I mean, that's gone. I mean, I know Republicans who are my neighbors who are like, susan Collins has got to go. She's clearly just full of it. So, like, it's not even working with her constituent or her base, certainly not working with Democrats. But I fear that the reason I've jumped into this race, quite frankly, is that I fear that there is some idea floating around of doing the exact same thing as 2020. Having an establishment candidate that comes out of the political machine, chosen in many ways by D.C. campaigning in the same way that these campaigns have all failed in the past. And it's. Susan Collins is uniquely weak right now, and yet there might be the ability to choose a uniquely bad candidate for this specific race. And I don't think I'm that candidate. I think I'm a good candidate. I think I can appeal across the divide I spent. I mean, I live in a small town. I, in many ways this is not a. I didn't set out to do this. I was approached to do it and I'm not doing it because somebody asked me to. But it wasn't my idea. I hadn't thought of it. And when it came up I was like, you know, it really does seem like there's an opportunity here to build a kind of politics again that comes out of the legacies of organized labor, comes out of the legacies of the civil rights movement to build movement politics. And they've run campaigns focused on field organizing, building connection across community organizations and labor organizations and political organizations. The only way that we are going to be able to survive the rise of fascism in America is to build a robust working class politics again. And I feel like that is a thing that we here in Maine are currently uniquely suited to do. And I'm really excited to get that ball rolling. Well, it already has, I guess.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, it's very exciting. I mean, I know that you have some progressive folks who are on your campaign working. Morse Katz joined from, from the Zoran campaign to help with your race as well as Joe Calvello who was on Bernie Sanders campaign and then on Fetterman's staff, but resigned as many did given his turn. So you have like some progressive organizers who understand this kind of thing behind you. Did you feel compelled to kind of get out ahead of some of the, of the rumblings about 77 year old Governor Janet Mills running in the, in the race? I don't know if she's going to do it, but like you're now you're what you're the first candidate really to declare and it gives you kind of a bit of a head start, it seems.

[Graham Platner]

I'll just be up front. We did, we didn't launch when we did because of that. We launched when we did because we had put the groundwork in to build a launch day that we could get so the. And I'm not doing this to keep other people out of the race. I mean, I, I firmly believe in a healthy primary process, which I wish certain elements of our political establishment still did.

[Emma Vigeland]

Exactly.

[Graham Platner]

I think a primary process is good. I can speak. It allows voters to engage with candidates with issues, and it can really narrow down what people really want. I also think in many ways it's how we exercise the muscle that we're going to need to fight in the general. So I think there is a, there's an element of that too. It's kind of you got to hone. You got to hone your skills and you can do that in the primary. But we launched this the way we want to because we could, because we had done the work to make it happen. We're not in somebody else's timeline. We're not asking anybody permission. We put together what we thought was going to be an effective start and it far surpassed my expectations. So I'm feeling quite, quite good about that. But yeah, I just, I don't. We didn't do this because of any other external input. We did this because it was our internal plan.

[Emma Vigeland]

The write up of you in Politico talks about how you reject the term kind of liberal. You're more of a, say, like a populist Democrat or progressive Democrat. Like, how would you characterize your politics for folks? And I'm thrilled to see people reject liberalism towards leftism. That's very exciting to me and I like that that was even included. How would you describe your ideology overall?

[Graham Platner]

I mean, at its core, it's a working class ideology that is built in movement politics. So I take my inspirations from the labor movement. I take my inspirations from the civil rights movement. American history is not a history of working people asking permission to get things from those in power. Every good thing that we have gotten, quite frankly for working people in this country does not come from writing a strongly worded letter to someone in power and then they just give it to you. We need to build power. We need to build organizational power, both in communities and workplaces. We need to build a much deeper structure of power through our political apparatus in a way that we can leverage it far after campaigns come and go.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Graham Platner]

The core of my Politics is Jane McAlevy. I, I heard her on this show. I read her books. I took organizing for Power because my background here is a community organizer. It's not an electoral politics. It was in her kind of critique of the inability for much of modern American liberal politics to have a theory of power. And I believe that, I firmly believe that power, there is no, there is no strata in our society that is made to hold power. Power exists and can be, can be taken and utilized by those who are willing to build the mechanisms necessary to do it. A lot of money means it's pretty easy to have power in the system that we have, but that can be, that can be fought against with a lot of people. But that's where the work happens. And that's the hard part. I mean, that's the, it's easy to raise a bunch of money and just go pay some consultant to like, like drum up some lobbying thing for you. It's a lot harder to organize in your community. But if we are going to build a working class politics in this country that is, that is based on actually building power and using it to get what we need and to frankly claw back a lot of resources from those who have used horrific policy for the past 40 years at a minimum to steal it from us. That's what we need to do. So I, that's, I'll just throw, I have to throw out Jane's name because we are diminished. I think in this moment. She would be a incredible force of nature to have with us. At least we are lucky enough that she could pass that all down.

[Emma Vigeland]

Absolutely. And people should read her books as well. That's totally, she's inspirational to me as well and to so many other people. Rest in power. Jane, then like, let's talk a little bit about your platform. I mean, your website kicks off with a critique of billionaires and how our government is bought and paid for by billionaires. I mean, how I should have known that you're Mr. Listeners, that you have postal banking on your platform, which I, I texted Sam about this already. He's on vacation, but he's very excited.

[Graham Platner]

I only, I, I wasn't sad to hear that I was coming on on Thursday because I'm a big majority supporter. So, but, but I, but I, I, I, I was like, at some point I'm gonna have to talk to Sam because I, I think postal banking is a spectacular program that we really need to invest in. But it's, you know, honestly, but, but you know what, to me to be just up front that stuff, while those are policies I'm gonna press, the real things are gonna be healthcare and housing. Housing and ending foreign wars. I mean that's like, those are Medicare for All.

[Emma Vigeland]

Medicare for all, yeah.

[Graham Platner]

100%. Yeah. I mean, I may, I'm an automatic yes, vote for Medicare for all. I also think that, you know, we need to come up with housing solutions that aren't merely going to take like taxpayer dollars, put them into some developer's bank account and let them build rental units to like bleed people like monthly. We need to build more housing, but we also need to couple it with programs that are going to support Americans getting into homes that they own at the point in their lives where they want to own a home. And VA home loans are a thing that a lot of friends of mine got to buy houses at a point where if they hadn't been veterans and didn't have access to that, they wouldn't have been able to. But we need to look at all these things like very structurally because I also, I, it's, you know, there are, there are pitfalls in doing some of this stuff and say allowing large corporate landlord companies to still exist because they'll figure out ways to leverage policy to it to benefit themselves. But you know, like that's, for me, that's the, that's the crux of all this. People can't get health care, people can't put rooms over their heads and all that money is going out the door to fund a genocide. That, that's what needs to stop first. And, and for me that's kind of, that's the real core, the core of the message because that's, that's how people are interacting with this right now. And eastern Maine, our health care system is collapsing and the Medicaid and Medicare cuts have not even come down the pike yet.

[Emma Vigeland]

So yeah, I mean the rural hospital closures are definitely going to impact, I would imagine in Maine. And you're, as somebody who works outside, as an oyster farmer, you also have a focus on the environment and our climate. How can you, how do you plan to meld the working class forward politics that you describe with a climate agenda that supports those workers but also moves us forward in terms of trying to curb the worst effects of climate change?

[Graham Platner]

Yeah, I mean, well, one, at some point I'm going to want to talk to Matt and David about this because I listen, I listen to this discussion a lot on left reckoning.

[Emma Vigeland]

Love this interview. I mean.

[Graham Platner]

The climate, I mean, look, I'm an oyster farmer. The Gulf of Maine is one of the second fastest spotting body warming bodies of water on Earth and we rely on it for a lot of our industry here. Both, both aquaculture, but more so commercial fishing, lobstering and so protecting it, making sure that we have a sea that we can rely on. For a long time to come is paramount to me. But I also want to make sure that whatever the, whatever the solutions we start to look for, they do not saddle working people with both the debt and frankly, the guilt. I always will find it amusing that everybody's supposed to feel bad about drinking out of a straw when ExxonMobil still exists. So it's a, there's a, we need to, we need to look into these solutions in ways that are going to make the people and the industries and the corporations that made the problems are the ones that have to foot the bill. Bill. It's all going to be very expensive. It all is going to take an immense amount of investment and resources that should not be on the backs of working people here in the United States or elsewhere for that matter. They're not the people that broke it. And when we look at these solutions, to me, that needs to be forefront in our minds when we try to come up with policies on how to fix this stuff.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, and your, your website, it's very detailed, which is something I, I really love and I can see some of the zoron influence there where there's no talking down to folks. You explain exactly where you stand on a variety of different issues. People should go to your site and they can check out exactly what your agenda is. How can people help support your campaign? I would imagine that you're only taking small dollar contributions, so of course that's a way to help. But tell us a little bit about your campaign contributions and how people can help you out. Obviously Your website is gramforsenate.com People can go there. But in your own words, what would be most helpful?

[Graham Platner]

Of course, I mean, yeah, small dollar donations. We're not taking corporate money. I mean clearly.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, yeah, it seemed to self evident.

[Graham Platner]

Yeah, the. And so for that we're definitely relying. So any little bit that people can pitch in, it means a lot. And I, that being said though, on top of that, we want to build a real campaign here, not a campaign of just raising money and spending it on consultants to buy a bunch of stupid TV ads that were modeled after the 1980s. We need people to phone bank. We need people who have any connections with Maine to get your neighbors involved. Go on the website, fill out the volunteer forms. The more volunteers we get, the more we can really start building out the apparatus of a true movement. I mean I, this is all very weird for me and I'm just going to be upfront about this. I have dreamed for years of seeing movement politics return to this country. And for some weird accident of history, I find myself here being the voice for it. And it's not a thing I set out to do a month ago. I thought servicing a couple moorings around Frenchman's Bay was the height of my stress. So it's all very odd. But I believe in this. I deeply believe that this is the only way forward. And so I want people to come into this and get involved as being part of a larger movement, just like Bernie showed us the way. I mean, Bernie really, for me, is not just an inspiration in policy and politics, but as an inspiration thinking about this stuff as a movement. It needs to be a movement. And the only way that we get to do any of this, the only way we get to actually go down, if I go to. When I win and when I go to dc, My vote is not going to get us Medicare for all. We need to have a deeper apparatus. We need to have a deeper movement that can put pressure on legislators around the country to make this stuff happen. And I want to bring people in to do that. So if that sounds like something you might be interested in getting involved in, which I hope a lot of listeners to. Mr. Would be those folks certainly Wyoming AM. It would, it would mean a hell of a lot to me if you could, if you could go to the website and sign up and yeah, also donate, of course.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, space Lennon writes in just donated left is best. So we're getting the word out. Really appreciate your time today, Graham. And of course, we're going to be tracking your race for quite a while. We will put a link to your site down below where people can find all of these links. But it's also just Graham. Graham for Senate four spelled not the number way, the correct way. Grahamforsenate.com thanks so much for coming on the show, Graham.

[Graham Platner]

Thank you very much. And yeah, just keep up the good work. What you guys do is why this is happening. So be very proud.

[Emma Vigeland]

I don't know about that, but really appreciate what you're doing. Thanks so much.

[Graham Platner]

Thanks a lot.

[Emma Vigeland]

All right, folks, with that, we're going to wrap up the free part of this program. I had high hopes for that interview and it, like, exceeded it. I mean, Brian, I'm so fucking.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

Excuse me.

[Sam Seder]

I'm so pumped right now.

[Emma Vigeland]

Brian grew up in Maine. I mean, Westbrook, Maine.

[Matt Binder]

And I have never been more proud of somebody coming out of my state. That's so exciting. It's really gonna spread this interview to my family and they're gonna spread it.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, yes, yes. Yes. Love it. So if you would like to support this show, you can go to join the Majority Report deck, but I mean, and become a member. But maybe today we'll plug Graham and you, if you have five bucks, maybe for Graham, you can become a Majority Report member. The other day, another day. And when you do, you can IM the show. You get access to the fun half, you get access to the podcast free of commercials, so we don't have to rely on Peter Thiel money. And we have Brandon here in just a second, so join themjorityreport.com Whoa. Hey, wrong mic.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

Yeah, they got the wrong mic.

[Emma Vigeland]

You're on the AirPods.

[Brandon Sutton]

Oh, hello there.

[Emma Vigeland]

Very nice. Is that Gargoyle's poster new?

[Brandon Sutton]

No, it's the same one.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, the same one. Oh, God, sorry. How could I forget? How are you doing, Brandon? What's happening on the Discourse?

[Brandon Sutton]

I'm doing, I'm doing well, a lot of things are happening on the Discourse. I took last week off to visit, as I said, the wonderful Sultanate of Londonistan. And this week we're back to our normal schedule. So it's a great time to go and join the YouTube channel the discourse with Brandon Sutton, or the Twitch channel, if you prefer. Tomorrow, I think will be, I don't know, there's, there's so many, there's so many elements of occult lore that I just feel go under examined in our media. So I don't know. Mothman. We'll do something about Mothman tomorrow.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

Is that the Richard Gere one?

[Brandon Sutton]

I don't know if Richard Gear. We talk about the Mothman prophecies a lot when I'm on. So maybe we'll just like let go.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

Of Mothman prophecies Podcast.

[Emma Vigeland]

You should.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

Yeah, it is Richard Gere 2002.

[Emma Vigeland]

I love that movie. I love how niche these podcast ideas keep getting. All right, check out the Discourse and say hello now to Matt Binder. Matt Binder, what's happening on your end?

[Matt Binder]

Hey, how are you? A lot over earlier this week. I'm going to be writing about it in depth in my [e-mail] but earlier this week I was, I had uncovered an interesting new person who was working for the Andrew Cuomo campaign. And I'm sure you saw this unfurl online on social media.

[Emma Vigeland]

That was you that broke that 11.

[Matt Binder]

I, I, I found a lot of the, the stuff that he had posted very cool and I had saw him, I mean I was familiar with that guy because I follow a lot of these, like tech startup guys and this Guy got on my radar, like, a year or two ago. And a couple of days ago, even before, like, he said that Cuomo was. You know, he was working with Cuomo, I had noticed that Cuomo's account was replying to a lot of other X accounts that were affiliated with his company, Meme Lord Technologies. Because you know how Twitter has that thing where you pay, like, a thousand bucks and you could put the little. You could, like, put the little, like, your little company logo next to other accounts and give them, like, a blue check, right? So I noticed that. I was like, well, that's weird. And I noticed, like, a lot of his replies sounded like AI generated. Like, slightly. Like he was just, like, replying with, like, laughing emojis or just reiterating exactly what the person was saying. Like, like, you know, someone would, like, one of the accounts would say, like, isn't that weird? And the Entreco would reply like, it is weird, isn't it? And it's like, who he replies to?

[Emma Vigeland]

No one on there.

[Matt Binder]

Why is he replying to all these same accounts? So that they got it on my radar. But then. I know. But then he. What was it? A day or two ago, it came out and said, he's working with Cuomo. And I had all these tweets of his ready to go because I knew this guy was a Trump supporter, like, a hardcore Trump supporter. But, yeah, I thought it was funny to see it happen and how quickly Cuomo tried to downplay it all. And the guy is having the greatest meltdown I've ever seen where he's. He's literally posting photos of himself with the Hitler mustache. Like, that. He added, like, that's his reaction to getting kicked off the Cuomo campaign.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

I mean, I guess the reason being because is he Jewish and people are calling him a Nazi, and it's like, actually, this contradiction isn't so mystifying to people.

[Emma Vigeland]

The most powerful Nazi in the country is Jewish. Stephen Miller, who we will play in the fun half. His little whiny freakout at Union Station. Well, great work there, Binder. Uncovering that binder is the thing about.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

His mom paying for his food and rent through Venmo for years and years at the same time that he had on his LinkedIn that he dropped out of school because his E Commerce business was doing so well. Like, is that real, or is that just something I believe?

[Graham Platner]

So.

[Matt Binder]

So the Venmo stuff is real, But I'm not sure. I couldn't. I couldn't really find out if that was his mom Actually, his mom. But it does sort of add up. I mean, it's. He was getting money from somebody. I just couldn't.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

Food and rent in July?

[Graham Platner]

Yeah. I mean.

[Matt Binder]

I mean, could it have been a roommate? Maybe? I guess. But, I mean, I, I.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gates.

[Matt Binder]

Yeah.

[Brandon Sutton]

Yeah, one of my. One of Matt Gates friends.

[Matt Binder]

What was telling to me was he wasn't replying to any of the people sharing that. Like, if it was a roommate, you would just be like, oh, that was my roommate. But if it's your mom, you're just going to ignore it and hope it goes away, right? I mean.

[Emma Vigeland]

That'S hilarious. All right, well, we'll continue our Cuomo bashing potentially in the fun half, where we will take your calls and read your IMs. See you on the other side.

[Vice President (clip)]

I am in it to win it.

[Emma Vigeland]

Fun half.

[Graham Platner]

Okay. Emma, please.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I just. I feel that my voice is sorely lacking on the majority report.

[Sam Seder]

Wait, look. Sam is unpopular. I do deserve a vacation at Disney World, so. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome Emma to the show.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

It is Thursday.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

I think you need to take over for Sam.

[Graham Platner]

Yes, please. No, no, no.

[Sam Seder]

I'm gonna pause you right there. Wait, what? You can't encourage Emma to live like this. And I'll tell you why. Someone offered a tour, sushi and poker with the boys. Tour, sushi and poker with the boys. Who was offered a tour?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Sushi and poker with the boys.

[Emma Vigeland]

What?

[Sam Seder]

Tour, sushi and poker.

[Emma Vigeland]

Tim's upset.

[Sam Seder]

Twerk, sushi and bulker with boys was offered with twerk, sushi and. That's what we call biz. Twerk, sushi and bulker with tin boys.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

Twerk, sushi and bulker.

[Emma Vigeland]

We're going to get demonetized.

[Sam Seder]

I just think that what you did to Tim Pool was mean.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

Free speech.

[Sam Seder]

That's not what we're about here. Look at how sad he's become now. You shouldn't even talk about him. I think you're responsible.

[Emma Vigeland]

I probably am in a certain way. But let's get to the meltdown here.

[Sam Seder]

Sushi and poker with the boys. Oh, my God. Wow. Sushi. I'm sorry. I'm losing my mind. Who's offered a tour, sushi and poker with the boys. Logic. Twerk, sushi and poker with the boys. I think I'm like a little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. Think I'm like a kid.

[Emma Vigeland]

Twerk.

[Sam Seder]

I think I'm like a little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. Had this debate 7,000 times. A little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. A little kid. Yeah. Think I'm like a dick. I'm losing my mind. Some people just don't understand. So I'm not trying to be a dick right now, but, like, I absolutely think the US should be providing me with a wife and kids.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's not what we're talking about here.

[Sam Seder]

It's not a fun job.

[Graham Platner]

Twerk.

[Sam Seder]

That's a real thing. That's real thing. Real thing. Willie Walker. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's real thing. That's a real thing that's offered. Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Rogan has done it again. Offer to work. That's a real thing. I think he might be blowing it out of proportion. Real thing. That's offered a torque. That's a real thing. That's poker. Let's go, Joey. Sushi and poker. Take it easy. Sushi and poker. Things have really gotten out of hand. Sushi and poker with the boys. You don't have a clue as to what's going on live. YouTube.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sam has the weight of the world on his shoulders. Want to do this show anymore?

[Graham Platner]

Anymore?

[Emma Vigeland]

It was so much easier when the majority report was just you.

[Sam Seder]

Let's change the subject.

[Matt Binder]

Rangers and Knicks are doing great now.

[Brian (co-host/commentator)]

Shut it up.

[Emma Vigeland]

Don't want people saying reckless things on your program.

[Graham Platner]

That's one of the most difficult parts about this show.

[Emma Vigeland]

This is the pro Killing podcast.

[Sam Seder]

I'm thinking maybe it's time we bury the hatchet.

[Emma Vigeland]

Left his best. Violet.

[Sam Seder]

Don't be foolish and don't tweet at me. And don't the way has all of these people love it.

[Elizabeth Pancati]

That's from my heart.

[Emma Vigeland]

So I wrote my honors thesis about it.

[Sam Seder]

Oh, you wrote an honest thesis. I guess I should hand the main mic to you now. You are to the right of the unforeign policy.

[Emma Vigeland]

We already fund Israel. Dude. Are you against us?

[Sam Seder]

That's a tougher question. I have an answer to.

[Graham Platner]

Incredible theme song.

[Emma Vigeland]

Hi, bumbler.

[Sam Seder]

Emma Viglin. Absolutely one of my favorite people, actually. Not just in the game, like, period.